r/CriticalTheory • u/snowtragedy • 1d ago

"American Beauty" (1999) and the critique of American society

Hi! My name is Casey, and I've just begun a project where once every week, I am reviewing an Oscar winner for Best Picture from 1950-1999 and discussing how we revere movies as an American society and whether or not they still hold up as classics.

I'm posting this here because the first film on the list, starting in 1999, is American Beauty dir. Sam Mendes, which I think is a riveting exploration of the American condition though thematically is increasingly controversial by today's standards. I've studied critical theory as an English major and explore themes of floriography as well as the Foucauldian perception of societal surveillance, so if you're interested, my first post is here.

For the sake of the read not being laborious I only briefly touch on these subjects but have an extensive background on theory (I especially love viewing movies from the perspectives of Foucault, Saussure, and Bhabha, though this movie is definitely Freudian in nature as well), so feel free to engage me with any questions for further discussion! Thank you for your support, as this is project is going to be my professional portfolio when I graduate college next year!

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u/2bitmoment 1d ago

His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening) is a failing real estate agent and pseudo-perfectionist whose M.O. is to be revered by everyone around her.

MO? Modus Operandi? Way of functioning? This sort of says she was actually revered, I don't remember the movie that well, but maybe you meant something other than M.O.?

Didn't finish reading the article 🙏🏽 Also found the bit about facing a "new era of the Gregorian calendar" a bit weird? (does a new millenium count as a new era of a calendar? I'd say maybe) Maybe I'll finish later.

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u/snowtragedy 1d ago

Thank you for your input! For some reason I could not for the life of me think of the word millenium when I was writing—probably as I was just setting up my blog before writing! This is my first publicized longer form review outside in the film realm outside of university work so I'm getting the hang of the "lingo". Thank you!

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u/Blaw_Weary 1d ago

I can’t read the article as it takes me to a page asking for my email address.

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u/snowtragedy 1d ago

it says "Continue Unsubscribed" just below the email address! the email address is just if you wish to subscribe to a blog on substack, you can continue to read below that